Employees in the automobile industry in Germany 2011-2022

774,339 people worked in German automobile manufacturing in 2022. The number of employees in the industry has been declining since 2018. Car companies around the world have been repeatedly cutting jobs. While this happens for several reasons, this decade’s onset of robotics and AI adds further question marks to the future of human employment in German automobile production.

Is the motor running?

The German automobile industry consists of many moving parts. The segments include motor vehicles, arguably the largest, car bodies, as well as electrical and electronic equipment. The production of motor vehicles and motors employed the largest number of employees in 2022 at around 460,600 people. This was an increase compared to the year before, though numbers had generally been falling in recent years. Automobile industry employees had overall also worked decreased hours as a total in recent years, in part because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, though the logged in average still amounted to over one billion.

Changing industry

Job cuts are not uncommon in the automobile industry in general. In 2023, Ford announced it would be cutting thousands until 2026. The company aims to transition completely to electric vehicles. In fact, electromobility as such carries with it the potential for massive changes to existing industry job structures, with around 161,200 German jobs already estimated as directly affected by 2025.